Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how gender shapes vacation preferences among Central European leisure travelers, with particular attention to motivational themes, demographic interactions and affective expression. The analysis explores whether women’s and men’s narratives reveal distinct motivational patterns, how gender intersects with education and age in structuring preferences and whether emotional tone differs across gender groups. Design/methodology/approach Open-ended responses from 842 Hungarian leisure travelers were analyzed using a mixed-methods analytic approach integrating qualitative and quantitative techniques within a single data set. Thematic coding identified motivational categories in participants’ narratives, while sentiment analysis assessed affective tone across gender groups. Latent Dirichlet Allocation uncovered underlying semantic patterns separately for male and female respondents. Logistic regression models incorporating post-stratification weights tested whether gender, education and age predicted theme prevalence. This triangulated strategy enabled cross-validation across complementary analytic dimensions. Findings Age emerged as the strongest demographic driver: older participants were markedly more likely to cite Health (p = 0.007) and Relaxation (p = 0.004). Education predicted the New Experiences motive (p = 0.006). Gender differences were modest and limited to routine escape (p = 0.005). Sentiment analysis showed women expressing a broader affective range (stronger positive and negative sentiment than men). Research limitations/implications This study’s reliance on self-reported data and Central European sample limits generalizability. Despite these constraints, findings provide valuable insights into gender–demographics–vacation preference intersections. Practical implications The results of this study offer tourism stakeholders guidance for developing targeted, gender-sensitive offerings aligned with modern vacation preferences. Social implications The findings of this study highlight evolving gender roles’ influence on vacation preferences, emphasizing the need for inclusive, adaptable tourism practices. Originality/value This study demonstrates that in a Central/Eastern-European setting, age and education outweigh binary gender in explaining vacation motives. The mixed-methods analysis reveals nuances not visible through single-method approaches.
Müller et al. (Sat,) studied this question.